Regular readers may well have spotted that we’re rather big fans of Liverpool Shopping Park, so we were pleased to hear that they’ve been granted planning approval for their second phase.

This week, His & Hers heard that Liverpool City Council’s planners have approved plans for the leisure-led second phase of Liverpool Shopping Park on Edge Lane, which is expected to create up to 885 new jobs.

The second phase will see a further £30m invested into Liverpool Shopping Park by its owners, The Derwent Group, and will deliver in excess of 145,000 sq ft of additional retail and leisure space.

The scheme will include a leisure block comprising a six-screen cinema, a new state of the art Hollywood Bowl, as well as a gym and five restaurant units on the ground floor. A separate building will accommodate a 60,000 sq ft anchor retail store and a further 16 smaller retail units.

This new phase will bring Liverpool Shopping Park’s total retail offer to in excess of 300,000 sq ft and will add new high street brands to the park, which includes Next, M&S Food Hall, River Island, H&M , TK Maxx and Smyths Toys.

Nigel Machin, Development Director at The Derwent Group said:

“Planning approval is a tremendous step forward in the evolution of Liverpool Shopping Park and is a testament to the park’s success to date and the confidence the city has in its future.“

“It’s a bold scheme that, in light of the rapidly evolving retail market, has been designed to meet the changing needs of operators and shoppers. We are confident this phase will really strengthen the existing LSP offer and be welcomed by the local community too. The addition of a large flagship anchor store and a number of smaller units will enhance our growing reputation as a destination shopping park and provides a wider range of opportunities for retailers.”

Planning approval puts Liverpool Shopping Park one step closer to becoming one of the largest shopping parks in the UK once complete and work will start on site in Summer 2019. Phase two is expected to open to the public in Autumn 2020. The first phase of Liverpool Shopping Park opened in October 2017 .

McMullen Wilson and CSP are the letting agents for Liverpool Shopping Park phase 2. The planning consultants are ATP Planning, AEW are the architects and Arcadis are the project managers.

The Derwent Group is part of the Albert Gubay Charitable Foundation and operates in the retail, leisure, industrial and commercial sectors. The group’s retail portfolio extends to 1.74m sq ft across nine retail parks in the north of England.